Oxford Playhouse

Oxford

An evening at the theatre in Oxford

When we fancy a proper night out, the Oxford Playhouse is usually where we end up. It sits on Beaumont Street in the middle of the city, more or less opposite the Ashmolean, and it has been the main producing theatre in Oxford since the 1930s. The auditorium is intimate enough that every seat feels close to the stage, yet the Playhouse is serious enough to pull in national touring companies, so on any given week you might find new drama, a visiting dance company, a comedian trying out material, or a live band. That range is the appeal: we rarely book knowing quite what mood the evening will be, and we're rarely disappointed.

The programme changes constantly and shows sell out, so we never assume anything about what's on. The one habit worth forming is to look at the diary before you plan the evening rather than after. Beaumont Street puts you a two-minute walk from dinner in every direction, which is really the point of making a night of it in the city rather than a quiet one at the cottage.

Why we make the trip

• The range of the programmeDrama, dance, comedy and music across the year, from touring productions to home-grown work, so there is usually something worth the drive whatever week you visit.
• A room that suits a showAn intimate main house where you are never far from the stage, so even a big touring name feels close and unhurried rather than cavernous.
• The Burton Taylor StudioThe Playhouse's smaller black-box space around the corner on Gloucester Street, where student and emerging work and more experimental pieces get their airing.
• Dinner on the doorstepThe best of central Oxford is within a few minutes' walk, so a show slots neatly around an early table without any rushing about.

Making a night of it

A theatre trip is the easy half of the evening; the other half is dinner, and Beaumont Street is well placed for it. Quod is a couple of doors down inside the Old Bank Hotel and does a brisk, dependable pre-show table; the Parsonage Grill, just up the road on Banbury Road, is the more grown-up option if the show can wait until later. If you want to build a fuller day around it, the Ashmolean is directly opposite and free to wander, and our guide to Oxford maps out the colleges, walks and corners we send guests to first.

Getting there from the cottage

Oxford is about thirty-five to forty minutes from Well Cottage, dropping down through the villages and into the city from the north. Driving right into the centre for an evening is doable but the streets around Beaumont Street fill up and parking is tight, so for a show we tend to leave the car at one of the park-and-ride sites on the ring road, Oxford Parkway or Water Eaton on the north side being the natural choice coming from Ledwell, and take the bus in for the last stretch. It saves the hunt for a space and means nobody has to think about the drive home until the curtain comes down. Whatever is on, it makes for a proper evening, and you can still be back by the fire well before it goes out.

“We try to catch something at the Playhouse every couple of months. The building is lovely, the seats are comfortable, and you're never more than a few rows from the action.”

Visit the official site →

Also nearby

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